Yellow and Orange 



and long ago took possession of the Phifippines. ... It has 

 established a more or less precarious foothold for itself in southern 

 England. It is well established at the Cape Verde Islands, and in a 

 short time we may expect to hear of it as having taken posses- 

 sion of the Continent of Africa, in which the family of plants upon 

 which the caterpillars feed is well represented." « 



Surely here is a butterfly flower if ever there was one, and 

 such are rare. Very few are adapted to tongues so long and 

 slender that the bumblebee cannot help himself to their nectar; 

 but one almost never sees him about the butterfly-weed. While 

 other bees, a few wasps, and even the ruby-throated humming 

 bird, which ever delights in flowers with a suspicion of red about 

 them, sometimes visit these bright clusters, it is to the ever- 

 present butterfly that their marvellous structure is manifestly 

 adapted. Only visitors long of limb can easily remove the pol- 

 linia, which are usually found dangling from the hairs of their legs. 

 We may be sure that after generously feeding its guests, the flower 

 does not allow many to depart without rendering an equivalent 

 service. The method of compelling visitors to withdraw pollen- 

 masses from one blossom and deposit them in another — an amaz- 

 ing process — has been already described under the common milk- 

 weed. Lacking the quantity of sticky milky juice which protects 

 that plant from crawling pilferers, the butterfly-weed suffers out- 

 rageous robberies from black ants. The hairs on its stem, not 

 sufficient to form a stockade against them, serve only as a screen 

 to reflect light lest too much may penetrate to the interior juices. 

 We learned, in studying the prickly pear cactus, how necessary 

 it is for plants living in dry soil to guard against the escape of their 

 precious moisture. 



Transplanted from Nature's garden into our own, into what 

 Thoreau termed "that meagre assemblage of curiosities, that 

 poor apology for Nature and Art which I call my front yard," 

 clumps of butterfly- weed give the place real splendor and interest. 

 It is said the Indians used the tuberous root of this plant for vari- 

 ous maladies, although they could scarcely have known that be- 

 cause of the alleged healing properties of the genus Linnaeus dedi- 

 cated it to ^sculapius, of whose name Asclepias is a Latinized 

 corruption. (Illustration, p. 312.) 



Horse-balm; Citronella; Rich-weed; 

 Stone-root; Horse-weed 



(Collmsonia Canadensis) Mint family 



Flowers — Light yellowish, lemon-scented, about Yz in. long, mostly 

 opposite, in numerous soreading racemes, forming long, loose, 

 terminal clusters. Caiyx bell-shaped, 2-lipped, upper Up 3- 



327 



